The September 11, 2001 Oral History Narrative and Memory Project

The Columbia University Oral History Research Office [OHRO], in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy [ISERP] at Columbia University has undertaken a major oral history project on the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001.  The co-directors of the project are Mary Marshall Clark and Peter Bearman, director of ISERP.  Within the first year of the project over four hundred interviews were conducted with a wide variety of people who were affected directly and indirectly by the catastrophe. Two hundred follow-up interviews were conducted in the winter and spring of 2002, in order to allow those we interviewed in the first year to speak about the effects of their experiences over time.  The objective of the project was to gather as many different individual perspectives on the impact of September 11th as possible, and to allow people to speak about their experiences outside the frameworks quickly developed by official media and government accounts.  The life history interviews were conducted over a broad spectrum of ethnic and professional categories, including those who were discriminated against in the aftermath and those who lost work or who were unable to work.  Interviews include large clusters of people directly affected at or near the site of the towers, as well as immigrants and Muslims from a variety of domestic and international communities.  Artists whose work was disrupted in the aftermath of September 11th were also interviewed.  The project was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and Columbia University, as well as generous friends of the Oral History Research Office and volunteer interviewers and consultants.  The interviews are now being processed, and will be open to the public as soon as the majority of those we have interviewed sign releases governing their use.

The September 11, 2001 Public Health Oral History Project

The September 11, 2001 Public Health Oral History Project consists of 34 interviews, 18 of which are released and now available, with individuals from various governmental and not-for-profit organizations.  The majority of the interviewees were employed in various capacities by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.  Interviews were conducted with individuals from the following organizations: Centers for Disease Control, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, 9/11 United Services Group, Health Committee of the New York State Assembly, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, School of Social Work of the City University of New York, Safe Horizon, Community Health Works and the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York City.  The interviews were conducted between January and November 2002 by Dr. David Rosner and Dr. Nancy Van Devanter of the Columbia School of Public Health as well as others working under their direction.  The creation of the project was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Columbia School of Public Health.

The September 11, 2001 Response and Recovery Oral History Project

The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund, directed by Jack Rosenthal, awarded the Oral History Research Office a grant in the summer of 2002 to undertake a project documenting the experiences of professionals who responded to the major urban crises generated by the events of September 11th.  Over the past three years, we have conducted sixty-five  interviews with leading responders in the fields of philanthropy, trauma services, unemployment relief, law and education.  These interviews are currently being processed and will be open to the public during the fall of 2005.  The project also supported the creation of a public schools initiative (see the Telling Lives project) and the writing of a guide for interviewers using oral history to document the effects of catastrophe. 

The Telling Lives Program

The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund awarded another grant to the Oral History Research Office in the summer of 2002 to develop oral history-based public programs designed to support the recovery of communities deeply affected by the September 11th events.   The Telling Lives Oral History Program is an innovative collaboration between leaders in the fields of oral history, education, mental health and public history that has evolved into several public history and educational programs over the last three years. 

The New York Times grant allowed for the creation of a three pilot projects: one on the role of the Ironworkers of Local 40 in building the World Trade Center and at Ground Zero, and two after-school programs using oral history to allow youth to explore the meaning of September 11th through dialogue.  The first after school program was implemented at the School for International Studies in Brooklyn where the school community had been split by ethnic tension in the aftermath of September 11th.  Seventh graders worked worked together in an after-school program directed by educators Amy Starecheski and Gerry Albarelli to conduct life history interviews with diverse elders in their neighborhood and to present their favorite stories in a booklet: Brooklyn Stories.  At Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School 131 in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the Oral History Research Office partnered with the Museum of Chinese in the Americas to help students create a multimedia museum exhibit: Living through History, based on interviews they conducted with local elders.

The ChevronTexaco Foundation then awarded a major grant to create a partnership between the New York University Child Study Center, Downtown Community Television, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and the Oral History Research Office.  In the spring of 2004, the partners collaborated to bring oral history into eight middle school classrooms in New York City’s Chinatown and to bring the students’ work back out into the community.  The Chinatown Telling Lives Project aimed to use oral history to strengthen the Chinatown community and the participating institutions and individuals. Each class produced either a full color book featuring their interviewees’ stories alongside their own artwork and reflections or a professionally edited video documentary.  That project culminated in a multimedia exhibit at Silk Road Mocha, a popular Chinatown internet café.

Based on this work, the Oral History Research Office has developed the Telling Lives Curriculum Guide, which gives educators tools to guide students through the process of creating a research project, learning to interview, conducting and analyzing oral history interviews, and producing a public presentation of their work.  The curriculum is designed to be customized to fit into each classroom teacher’s existing curriculum, and is suitable for use in English, Social Studies, or interdisciplinary classes, at any grade level. 

The Guide is now being tested and refined in several schools and other educational sites, and will be available online in 2006.

The Telling Lives Program is now a permanent program of the Oral History Research Office, devoted to using oral history for community outreach, education and advocacy especially in settings that are under-resourced.

The Chinatown Documentation Project

The Rockefeller Foundation supported this collaboration between the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, The City University of New York 9/11 Digital Archives, New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program, and the Oral History Research Office.  The Chinatown Documentation Project aims, through recorded oral histories and public programming, to foster thoughtful community conversations and reflections on the consequences of September 11 for Chinatown and its residents. The Chinatown Documentation Project will present these searchable, videotaped oral histories over the internet so that they might serve as a resource for the community's articulation of its identity and defining of its future.  The interviews are also archived at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas and the Library of Congress.  A DVD of excerpts from the interviews and an accompanying curriculum guide will soon be available to educators and others.  The Chinatown Documentation Program allowed the Oral History Research Office to solidify its long-standing relationship with the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, enabling oral history to embrace the challenges of working cross-institutionally to support community cultural development and educational outreach.